Tiny Implant Chip Could Detect Heart Attacks Before They Happen
Vignesh Ramachandran, Mashable
Swiss researchers say they’ve come up with a tiny implant that can analyze blood from within our bodies and send test results directly to a doctor.
The device would be implanted just below the skin and can basically look at the concentration of substances in the blood to help determine the status of a patient’s health. There are five sensors, a radio transmitter and a power system to make it all work, as explained in the video above. The chip, which is only about 14mm (or about a half-inch), was developed by a team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland (EPFL).
After the medical implant chip does its analysis, a battery patch on the skin receives the chip’s radio signals of information and transmits that to a cell phone, which then helps send the data to a doctor.
This technology could be used for doctors to track and monitor a patient’s symptoms ahead of time, as well as for personalized medicine: “It will allow direct and continuous monitoring based on a patient’s individual tolerance, and not on age and weight charts or weekly blood tests,” EPFL team lead Giovanni de Micheli said in a news release.
Another EPFL scientist, Sandro Carrara, told The Verge that the implant can detect a molecule tied to heart attacks three of four hours before an attack.
This chip prototype is still undergoing experiments, but researchers hope it could be commercially-available within four years.
We’ve seen technology that could possibly predict crimes, but what do you think about this proactive type of medical technology? Let us know in the comments.
Thumbnail and image courtesy of EPFL via EurekAlert!
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